My great-great-grandfather's three sisters, left to right: Susan, Etha and Lucy Jones. Photographed about 1870

Take a moment and read through my new genealogy blog devoted to my ancestors.

My name is Ryan Wadleigh and I live in Seattle, Washington. This website is the product of over 20 years of my research, as well as the countless amount of research that has been done by those in the past and those who have collaborated with me and helped me in my pursuits. I could not have been so successful in my research had it not been for the invaluable assistance of so many people.

It is my goal that this website will be useful to many people. I think that relatives and family members with little or no interest in genealogy will enjoy some of the photos and short family histories. My documentation and sources should also be useful to fellow genealogists. I must stress that the information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate or free of errors and my research itself or my reasoning might be flawed. Please use caution when taking information from this site. This is a work in progress, and I am continually adding information. If you have any ideas or information to add, please do not hesitate to e-mail me (ryanwadleigh@yahoo.com).

My interest in genealogy is primarily motivated by an interest in history and in storytelling. I think our ancestors had fascinating lives that are taken for granted by current generations. With my research, I hope to bring some life to these fascinating people. As a result, my focus on genealogy is less about names and dates and more about stories. If you can help, please do!

By and large, my ancestors were mostly Northwestern European (and Protestant). Based on my own research, I know that I am mostly English, German, and Scottish. The rest of my known ancestry is comprised of Danish, Dutch, Welsh, French, Swedish, Irish, and Swiss individuals. My family history also has unproven legends of possible Native American and Moroccan ancestors.

I recently had my DNA tested (autosomal DNA testing) through four different companies (AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA), to see if DNA could be used to provide any clues to enhance or prove/disprove my research. The process was educational for me, as I learned that using DNA to predict ethnic origins is a very inexact science. Because of that, the four different tests provided quite different results. Overall though, all four agree with my research that I am mostly northwestern European in general, and specifically mostly British. Beyond that though, there are various discrepancies. The test that appears to provide the most accurate results is 23andMe. It indicated that I am about 95% northwest European, and specifically called out the countries of United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark - which is precisely where most of my documented ancestors were from. The remaining 5% of my ancestry though had some surprises, including trace amounts of DNA from: Eastern Europe (on my mother's side), Finland (on my mother's side), Spain/Portugal (on my paternal grandmother's side), Sub-Saharan Africa (on my paternal grandmother's side), and North Africa/Arabia (on my mother's side). Because both of my parents and one of my grandparents took the test, it helped to narrow down the results to specific branches of my tree. Results from other tests also show trace results in Caucasus, Italy, Greece, South America and Oceania.

I talk about these DNA tests in more detail in my blog post, DNA Research, in which I specifically discuss how the DNA research had been used to potentially fill in a hole in my family tree, of possible Cherokee ancestors.